Death's strong bonds

Today is Good Friday, when Christians in the West remember the crucifixion of Christ and prepare for the Resurrection on Easter Sunday. Like Christmas, Easter brings out the big musical guns, so I’m going to leave one of the biggest of them, J.S. Bach’s cantata “Christ lag in Todesbanden”, BWV 4.

The title translates to “Christ lay in death’s strong bonds”, and the operative trac k in this rendition starts at 1:40, if you’re in a hurry.

In my opinion, you shouldn’t be in a hurry, but instead should crank up the volume and listen to it all.

Treading water

There’s no escaping the fact that Virginia is still a Confederate state, only dragged kicking and screeching a rebel yell into the 20^th Century. (I’m not actually convinced they’ve made it to the 21^st.) Them good ol’ boys are still pissed off that you can’t smoke everywhere including hospitals and grocery stores, because tabacky.

I mean, yes, it’s the Mother of Presidents, but seven out of the eight born here were slaveholders, and my money’s on Woodrow Wilson being one, too, in his heart of hearts. So there’s a distinctly dark underbelly to the genteel veneer of culture and refinement.

There are plenty of visual manifestations, including the garrison-sized Confederate flag that waves over I-95 in Stafford County. But one that gets up my nose is the proliferation of cod-patriot Tea Party vanity license plates you see around here—even in Northern Virginia, which Tea Baggers refer to as Southern Maryland. (They still resent the fact that two of the richest counties in the country, Fairfax and Loudoun, consistently vote Democratic, and that with the educated tech-based population expanding south and west, we’re going to eventually turn the whole commonwealth as blue as a summer sky.)

So, in a recent Twitter thread, I really got a charge out of some of the memes that threw shade all over these yahoos. Viz:

God bless America.

Sign language

There’ve been some interesting things to come out of the March for Our Lives last Saturday. Some of them, of course, crawled out of the woodwork with their conspiracy theories and flinging all kinds of lies about the kids who got hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets.

Fear does that.

Anyhow, there’ve also been amusing things. Including this:

Mockery gets up their noses, so I’m down with it.

U-turn

A while ago I was wandering around Target, as one does, when I noticed this sign:

Here it is slightly enlarged:

I got a little curious about what Devor Meals might be, so I scanned the case, and here’s what I discovered:

I’m thinking that Target doesn’t spend a lot of time on quality control in their signage.

Gratitude Monday: safe and warm

At time of writing, I’m looking at a sunny day, with temperatures in the mid- to high-40s, and later this week it’s supposed to get into the 60s. So, March is starting to put on its lambskin.

But there are still small patches of snow left over from last Wednesday’s storm, when March was decidedly lionlike.

From my living room I had a wide-screen view of the birds out at the feeders:

And while was watching the birds, I noticed a new arrival:

And so I welcomed a fox sparrow, who has a distinctive hop/scratch movement:

As I observed Foxy and Friends eagerly scarfing up the seed, I thought about what a treat it was to be able to put out food for them, and to watch them—from my warm living room. My power remained on, my heat never failed. I made green tea and cinnamon toast; I cleaned out my refrigerator; I researched academic institutions’ operating revenues. The worst thing that happened to me was having that Japanese maple dump a load of snow on me when I went out to shovel my walk.

Even the USPS delivered!

Knowing all too well that heat and power are not guaranteed in such weather—when the argument can be made that you need them the most—I am grateful that my neighbors and I were blessed in this regard. And I’m also grateful that we may be tiptoeing into Spring. You know—warm, blooming Spring.

I think the birds are, too.